Stars explained: * A production of no real merit with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic which lifts theatre to another plane.
Half stars fall between the ratings

running top cast

David Wilkes, Hannah Tolley, Katie Brown, Matthew Morgan

See how they run

The Nonentities

The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster

***

Did you hear the one about the four Vicars, a cleric, the actress and the German soldier? If you haven’t then maybe you should run along and see the Nonentities production of Philip King's wartime classic, See how they run

After all there is something quintessentially English about farce and what could be more quintessential than the mistaken comings and goings at the Vicarage in a sleepy English Village during the Second World War.

Written in 1945, its opening night in London was punctuated with the dropping of real bombs, but they and nothing else seem to have managed to keep it off the stage in one form or another since then.

Its form has clearly been the early inspiration for many a situational religious comedy like The Vicar of Dibley and Father Ted. There are shades of ‘Allo ‘Allo and Dad's Army all entwined into the madcap and insanely implausible plot.

There are nods aplenty to the innuendo gags of the music hall. "I'm having a little trouble with my inner tube" seems a fairly innocent phrase but here coming from the local Church spinster, it has the tones of something more suggestive in this well written farce.

It’s impossible to fully outline the plot and the play even ends with the main characters speaking over each other in a crazed attempt to explain to the other inhabitants of the Vicarage, the precise actions of their previous 24 hours.

Suffice to say the Rev Lionel Toop has secured himself the young, slightly unconventional actress, Penelope as a wife. There’s the local busy body Miss Skillon who clearly disapproves of her but then on the eve of a visit from Penelope’s Uncle, who just happens to be a Bishop, an old actor chum, Clive turns up. 

running duo

Martin Salter and Katie Brown

Suffice to say the Rev Lionel Toop has secured himself the young, slightly unconventional actress, Penelope as a wife. There’s the local busy body Miss Skillon who clearly disapproves of her but then on the eve of a visit from Penelope’s Uncle, who just happens to be a Bishop, an old actor chum, Clive turns up.  

While her husband is out Penelope and Clive decide to go out for an evening with him disguised as a Vicar to stop the local rumours. Meanwhile we hear a German prisoner of war has escaped from the local internment camp and somehow Miss Skillon finds her way into the vicarage and manages to get drunk on the cooking sherry. When the Bishop arrives that night a day early, he enters full on into the chaos of it all.     

The play is a real ensemble piece and the company has battled on thru covid restrictions, cancellations, cast illnesses and even the limitations of Zoom rehearsals to deliver a very entertaining version of this classic. David Wilkes even stepped up with just 3 weeks’ notice into the role of the Bishop of Lax.

Penelope Toop was played by the very accomplished Hannah Tolley with her principal opposite Martin Slater as her friend, the actor turned soldier Clive. Both revelled in keeping the action fresh and the timing tight.  

The stiff necked role of spinster Miss Skillon fell to Katy Ball and she spent a fair amount of time, either in the broom cupboard or comically in a state of inebriation. Katie Brown was Ida the maid, seemingly oblivious to the goings on, but instrumental in the mounting confusion.

Tony Newbold played the straight laced Rev Lionel Toop and after some early exchanges spent a fair amount of time encircling the stage in his underwear. There was great support too from Matt Morgan as the Stranger, Dan Taylor as yet another Reverend, the Reverend Humphrey and Michael Thompson as the blundering and forceful Sergeant Towers.

See how they run won’t have you rolling with laughter as it’s far too polite and preposterous to surprise you with anything you have never seen before. But it’s a fun packed evening and a true glimpse of a time when the most outrageous act of indecency was a few too many sherries and a woman wearing trousers out in public. Oh, how times have changed.

Running to 26-02-22

Jeff Grant

22-02-22

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